Stories have appeared in The Independent claiming Mercedes has matched Button's demands and he's looking to see if he can get any more out of them. I would bet my bottom dollar that both the Mercedes and McLaren contracts are near-identical and that Button is trying to separate them; the reason why it's being reported on the Mercedes side is because the British press want two British World Champions at a British team.
Lotus will almost certainly get the 24 or 25, or whichever numbers are immediately after Campos, Manor and USF1. The reason is that numbers are assigned in the order the teams joined the grid; while Lotus is a new team, it wasn't accepted until after the first three.
Apparently the sticking point for Button is that Mercedes are banking on Rosberg and will fashion him as their number one driver, while Button would be number two with a one-year contract that Mercedes would use to "assess" him. If I were Button, I'd be a bit sore because I'm the incumbent World Champion, and was the only driver to score in every event he finished in 2009 while Rosberg is an unproven driver who ambitions but no results save for the odd podium.
I disagree with that, Mercedes has been in F1 for a long time. First with Sauber and then Mercedes, it's clear they're quite serious about it.
You have to remember that the contract Brawn offered was made back in the day when they were an independent company with not a lot of money. Now that they are Mercedes it should be different.
) on Hamilton outperforming Button in 2/3's of the races next year 👍 Otherwise, as they say talk is cheap, especially in an online debate 
I'm sorry but you're not looking at any type of details. The Brawn chassis was absolutely dominant in the first 6 races...with no other team that could really come close to challenging them in the dry. By the time RBR had come on they had to fight off a very strong Mclaren and Brawn (as well as a few others) who were very competitive on certain tracks. Then you add the fact that RBR was using a Renault powerplant that was very weak at tracks like Monza and Spa as the results showed. And then you had Vettel's blown engine at Europe as well as other engines issues that ended costing him places on the grid....none of which JB had to deal with. Bottom line is that Brawn had no competition in the first 6 races...that's a fact.
I won't waste my time going any further as you only seem to want to pick out what suits your argument. I rate Button and Barichello about the same, both having their strong suits in different areas. Barichello would have likely taken Button out this year had it not been for his brake issues in the first 7 races or so anyway. And I would also put Webber in there with them, with Vettel being the stronger driver of the three, up with the top 5 on the grid. I think most of us can confidently say - if Vettel was in the Brawn last year he would have dominated either Barichello or Button as he would have been consistently toward the front more often than either of them.
On another note - Great to Button has joined with Mclaren. Should be interesting to see who takes the Brawn seats and what ends up happening to Raikkonen.
Tyred Tires: If you're so confident Button is on the same level as Hamilton why don't you put your money where your mouth is? I'll put $100 (sorry don't know what that is in Euro's
If he signs, maybe his confidence that he can hold his own with LewHam is exactly what he needs to dispel the mythos surrounding the second McLaren seat.
